1. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices generate heat. In many computing devices, passive cooling (such as natural convection) is insufficient, and active cooling is necessary to keep the computing device from reaching unacceptable temperatures. Fans are often used as active cooling components to keep the temperature of the computing device within acceptable boundaries. For example, a computing device may have a case mount fan, a power supply fan, a central processing unit (CPU) fan, and others to provide active cooling for the computing device. Other active cooling devices (such as heat pipes, refrigeration devices, and others) may be used in addition to, or in place of, fans. These active cooling devices may be controlled by a thermal cooling module.
The thermal cooling module within the computing device may require access to thermal control data structures as part of normal operations. For example, a fan may need access to a thermal control table that provides certain data concerning operation of the fan. The thermal control data structure is typically contained within the input output system (IOS), such as the basic input output system (BIOS), that is stored in non-volatile memory such as erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other non-volatile memory.
Updating the thermal control tables generally requires that the user update the entire IOS. However, many customers do not want to update the entire IOS, and prefer to use a fixed level of IOS in order to avoid going through the time and expense associated with validating the updated IOS. As a result, the customer is forced to choose between using updated or customized thermal control tables and continuing to use a particular level of IOS. Many customers may choose to forgo the benefits of using updated or customized thermal control tables as a result.